Need help finding a good gaming PC

[DarkCrow676]

I've hit a point in my life where playing games on a console will no longer quench my thirst for gaming. Ever since I started playing UT, every game I play feels so empty without having several other people playing it.

With the upcoming release of Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and several other great PC shooters, I need a computer that is able to handle these games and not have room taken up by other programs.

I was recently looking through my new GMR magazine and saw an add for the Fragbox. Its a small PC designed for gamin, lan gaming in particular. I don't do much lan gaming, none at all at the moment, but with this I might be able to. Now I'm looking for a PC designed just for gaming, nothing else except for internet acces. Whats the best and affortdable PC for the job and is the Fragbox ok?


EDIT: I don't know jack about specs so heres the link to the site about the Fragbox and othe Falcon PCs.

www.falcon-nw.com

[Omni]

www.ibuypower.com

Some people will tell you to build your own, which is perfectly fine, but I personally think you're better off buying from this site.

Their prices are infinitely awesome, great customer service, all without the hassle of building your own computer (yeah, I know it's not hard, but you still have to do it).

And they give you a kickass case to boot, with a light and everything.

[DarkCrow676]

Thanks for the link. I have no idea when it comes to specs, so if I were to just get one of those and not really change much about it, would I be fine or are there certain things I need to add?

[Rumpy]

That Fragbox is really fucking cheap for what's in it. Looks awesome too. That's about how much I paid to build my computer in January, and the cpu in that thing is about 800 mhz faster.

Since your going gaming, (and you have HL2 and especially Doom 3 in mind) ya want as much speed as you can afford. With that Fragbox, it really has some CPU muscle behind it, the graphics card is really good (people will say that ATI's latest 9800 Pro's are better, but for me, there really isn't a much of a big difference to bother me). As a rule of thumb 512MB of ram is the standard now. You can never have too much RAM, get as much as you can afford. For the HD, is 80 gigs enough for you? If your just putting games on it, it probably is. Your call. At 14 pounds, I'm sure shipping won't be too bad.

The biggest problem with that box is that there is very little you can upgrade. Eventually it'll get outdated and your going to have to buy a whole new system. You can only double the ram to 1024MB (which really is a shit load of ram) and have one PCI card slot (which you can put a lot of shit into). Falcon makes that and I trust them as they have an excellent reputation and I'm sure it'll be built really well (I'd assume they know how to keep it cooled, especially since they are selling it as a gaming rig). After looking at it, I wish I had one.

If you want, you can go balls out and buy the fastest of everything, but your going to pay, but it'll stay "current" longer. I guess it depends if you want an easily upgradeable computer or not. But for general purposes, anything over 2 ghtz will be great, a minimum of 512MB of ram, a Geforce 4 level card (or ATI's 9500, 9800 Pro) a 7200 rpm hard drive (as big as you want, it's all about storage, not really a game altering device) and a nice speedy cd/dvd drive (pretty cheap and easy to pick out these days (I can recommend Lite-on for cd burners).

Personally I'd go with Falcon before Alienware (the other big name gaming rig builders). I've heard unhappy stories about them, they are really expensive and their new cases are fucking HUGE.

[Omni]

Thanks for the link. I have no idea when it comes to specs, so if I were to just get one of those and not really change much about it, would I be fine or are there certain things I need to add?

Well...how much are you willing to spend?

[MechDeus]

Those look to be fine systems, especially for the price. Just from a quick glance, that $649 system on the front page (and popup ad) looks to be the best deal for a system that'll currently run anything just fine. However, on that $649 system you'll want to change the hard drive to at least the 80 Gig Western Digital with 8MB buffer. It's not much more expensive and that extra buffer will definately help. You'll also want the best video card you can afford for HL2 and Doom III, I doubt that 5200 will cut it.

Honestly, when it comes to gaming PCs there is no such thing as too much, so go for whatever you can afford. The more you can add the better it'll do for longer (in regards to new games).

P.S. If multiplayer is what you're primarily after, Doom III might not be your game, FYI and all.

[DarkCrow676]

I've glanced around and I've come down to 3 choices. First is the Talon 5.6 by falcon. Its specs are

Talon 5.6 - 2800+ System
Includes:
AMD AthlonXP 2800+ 333 FSB Processor
Asus A7N8X nForce 2 Motherboard 1AGP 5PCI
120 GB Hard Drive, 8MB Cache 7200 RPM
1024MB PC2700 DDR Memory
ATI Radeon 9700 PRO AGP8X Graphics Card
16X Toshiba DVD (48x CDROM)
Plextor Plexwriter 48x24x48 CDRW
Creative Labs Audigy Sound Card
Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse
Logitech Deluxe Keyboard
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Mid Tower Case
300 Watt Enermax Power Supply
Microsoft Windows XP Home
System Recovery DVD
3COM V.90 PCI Modem
Or Optional 10/100 Network
PRICE: $1595.00

The from Ibuypower, I am looking at the Gamer Special which when i have selected my needs comes to around $1,400 and the Gamer Supreme Pc which comes to around $1,700.

The only questions I have are for memory can I have 512MB or do I need 1024Mb and for the video card would the Nvidia 5600 256MB do or do I really need the 5900?

[LOL]

You can use just 512 of RAM just fine. I'm running Morrowind, Unreal 2 and other graphic whore games on full detail on a 2.0ghz Athlon with 512 of PC2100 RAM. Most games really don't need the extra memory, and if you ever need it in the future you can buy 512 more for cheaper.

You also might want to just get a 128mb card. The 256mb cards out now don't really do much more for the extreme price difference. It'd be best to go 128mb, since that'll handle anything you throw at it anyway, and get a 256mb down the line when they're a lot cheaper (if you ever need it). You really shouldn't bother with the 5900 card or the Radeon 9800, because spending over 200 dollars on any computer accessory is retarded.

That Audigy sound card is also worse than the onboard sound on the nforce2 motherboard. Drop it. I'd upgrade the motherboard to the Deluxe version while you're at it.

Those are all just suggestions though, and everything looks fine anyway. I'm just trying to give a little perspective, because you don't need the best you can afford when mid-range products can still handle everything 100%.

Also, check out sites like http://www.anandtech.com, http://www.hardocp.com, http://www.tomshardware.com, and any other computer enthusiast site. They always do benchmarks on graphics cards and such so you can see just how many FPS it can do on certain settings, so you can know exactly what you want without spending a ton more for a product that will give you something silly like 120fps instead of 60.

[GohanX]

I'm with Ninjas here. It's worth noting that Windows XP doesn't really handly more than 512 MB of ram properly for normal applications, I don't know about games since most of my games are old and don't come close to even pushing 256.

Same with the video card. Never pay more for the video card than you would a console system. High-end video cards will be around $100 by the time any games come out that will take advantage of the features that they have. Personally I don't have anything that pushes my old Radeon 64 meg card, but again, I don't do much PC gaming.

[negitoro]

Personally, regardless of gaming or not, if I wanted a PC built, I go with monarchcomputer.com.

I managed to price together a system :
Antec Sonata (Black) case (w/380W PS)
Add'l case fan
MSI 865PE NEO2 mobo (w/ built in LAN)
P4 2.66 GHz
512 MB Samsung DDR400
WD 120GB 8MB
Lite On 52x24x52 (black) CDRW (if it's just for gaming, no need for DVD)
Creative Audigy OEM
ATI 128MB 9800 Pro
XP Home

The whole deal comes out to $1253.00... plus $45 for a custom PC and shipping costs.